New Delhi | An Indo-Franco campus has been set up at the Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi, which will become operational from next year, officials said on Friday.

The Indo-Franco campus will offer postgraduate level courses on healthcare at the initial stage, and may provide other courses in the future.The French embassy has funded the campus for an undisclosed amount.

"The French embassy has funded for a campus to be set up at IIIT-Delhi. The facility will be called Indo-Franco campus," Ranjan Bose, Director, IIIT-Delhi, told media on the sidelines of the institute's 12th convocation ceremony held on Friday.

Admissions for the academic session 2024-25 at the Indo-Franco campus will begin from next year, Bose added.

"We are working on the modalities to decide which courses will be offered at the Indo-Franco campus. Initially we will start with PG level courses in healthcare, and will come up with other degrees in future," Bose said.

The classes for the virtual campus will be held at IIIT-Delhi campus and the courses will be taught by visiting faculty from France, he said.

"Meetings are underway to start courses at the virtual campus soon. A delegation from the French government visited our campus to work on the modalities," Bose said.

Delhi's LG and chancellor of IIIT-Delhi, Vinai Kumar Saxena, congratulated students and emphasised on the need to produce more research in the sciences.

"To my understanding, very few technology graduates go on to pursue specialised education leading to PhD or other higher degrees. To my mind, this is a trend, that if not reversed will lead to depriving the nation of a specialised talent pool that is essential to drive the engines of a knowledge economy," he said in his address.

A total of 715 students at undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral levels were awarded degrees at the IIIT Delhi convocation ceremony.